Eternity
by sailorraven34
Summary: Vanessa's daughter Elayne is not only missing, but no one remembers that she even existed. But before Xander can shove Vanessa into the mental hospital, Madelynn finally attacks and everything is turned upside-down. Meanwhile, sixty years in the past, Maximillian Nero meets a girl named Mint who will change his life forever.
1. Prologue

Prologue

"_Luchia Dellestelle Presscott, the mystery girl."_

_Lucy smiled obligingly at Nero. He was her headmaster, and kissing up to him could only help her. _

"_Spectacular grades… in fact, an almost perfect grade in _all_ classes, brilliant ideas… those plans for the giant space robots were wonderful, and one of the most popular students in the Alpha stream." Nero smiled at her. "Are you really as perfect as you seem?"_

"_Well, I am a murderer, sir." said Lucy with another charming smile. Nero laughed, then his expression became serious. _

"_How are you?"_

"_Fine." Lucy said. _Do not show any emotion to the enemy.

"_You just spent almost a year at the Glasshouse and watched one of your good friends die." Nero said. "Are you sure?"_

"_Vanessa and I weren't friends, sir. I don't have friends. Just allies."_

"_I see." Nero paused for a moment and rearranged the papers on his desk, not looking at her. "What I've really called you here today to talk about is this."_

_He slid a piece of paper across his desk towards her. Lucy looked down at it. "A DNA test, sir?"_

"_Yes. Lucy, you do not match either your father's or your mother's DNA. However… you are a startlingly close match for our very own Vanessa Montov." Nero crossed his arms. "Care to explain?"_

"_It's complicated, sir." _

"_Time travel often is."_

_Lucy froze. "How did you-"_

"_Your hair, Lucy." Nero pushed back his own hair to reveal a fading white streak identical to her own. "You're a recent time traveler to boot. Your family has been dead a very long time, haven't they?"_

"_It's the house." Lucy whispered. "My house. I lived there, with my family, and for a while I thought that I was normal… but it drifts in and out of time. Furan found it… and then…"_

_She twisted her hands in her lap. "It's because of Kaito. I know it. He took me away from my real family when I was just a baby."_

"_And your real family is…?" Nero said, leaning forward. _

_Lucy shook her head. "I'm not sure. From where we stand… it hasn't happened yet. I thought it might be Otto and Vanessa, but now Vanessa is dead and Otto is with Laura…"_

"_Don't worry." Nero said. "Things have a way of working themselves out…"_

_###_

_**?**_

_I woke up. _

_My whole body throbbed, and my hand was sticky with blood. I looked around and saw I was in a tiny cell. The walls, floor and even part of the ceiling were covered in blood red writing, the same word obsessively scrawled over and over again… Raven Raven Raven Raven Raven Raven Raven Raven…_

_My arms and legs were covered in the same writing, only now there were other words- Vanessa, Valerie, Nico, Natasha, Jacob, Mark, Max… I blinked, confused. These names must have once been connected to people… but now I could not remember. _

_The redheaded man in the doorway smiled down at me. "Who are you, my dear girl? Do you remember?"_

_I frowned and touched my cheek. Something was supposed to be there, wasn't it? But it was gone now…"_

"_My name is Merrin Montov." I said softly. "But you may call me Mint."_


	2. In The Beginning

**January 18, 1977**

"Snow!" Emma Nero screamed, her tiny hands and nose pressed flat to the window pain. "Loads of it! They'll close school for sure!"

Maximillian Nero rolled over, pressing his cheek against the stone-cold pillow. Unlike his younger sister, he didn't care about the lack of school. He was ten now, old enough to understand that most of the money in the family came from hardly legal means of procurement. Snow meant that some of this might be unavailable for him and his sister.

Valerie was toweling dry her dyed red hair. Max couldn't remember whether she'd picked her nickname, Scarlett, and gotten it done to match, or the other way around, and he was afraid to ask. Scarlett glared distastefully out the window and fumbled a cigarette out from the pocket of her bathrobe.

"Mum doesn't like it when you smoke in here." Max pointed out.

"Yeah, and whose gonna tell her?" She lit it. Scarlett was fifteen and taller than him and Bartholomew, Her eyes had a permanent mean stare that terrified the crap out of virtually anyone, even adults. She seemed to like Max, and referred to him semi-affectionately as 'squirt', even though that was a highly inaccurate nickname as Max was tall for his age. "So, squirt. Have you met her yet?"

"Her?" Emma said. She was now drawing pictures in the frost on the window pane.

"Bartholomew's latest girlfriend." Scarlett said, with little attempt to conceal her hatred.

"Is she pretty?" Max asked.

"She's a seductive snake is what she is." Scarlett growled. "And her brother is a thug. But he's kind of hot. I guess."

Emma nodded wisely and opened the window.

"Don't do that, it's freezing enough as it is." Scarlett barked. Emma let go of the window and it swung shut with a bang.

"What's her name?"

Scarlett turned her laser gaze on Max. "Why are we still on this subject?"

"You brought it up." Max reminded her.

"Anna-Stacy Futon or something like that. That subject is now closed. What do you want for breakfast, squirt? Your choices are… air, water or cardboard!"

"Water, please." Max said.

"Get it yourself." She smiled. "Be dressed and ready in ten minutes. I'm off to go and see if I can find something better."

###

**January 18****th****, 2033**

**Vanessa**

The day the world ended, I was talking about scrapbooking with my psychotic father in law, who is currently in prison for being, well, psycho.

"I think we should put the dolphin stickers here… and maybe throw in a strip of this aqua paper." I suggested.

Otto frowned. "That might work… but don't you think there'll be too much blue?"

"But the aqua paper is sparkly." I pointed out.

"You always go for the sparkly." He smiled.

It had taken a lot of time and effort to become Otto's friend again. The first time I'd gone into his cell (against Xander's wishes) he'd tried to kill me. We'd eventually worked past this stage and rekindled our old friendship. And now we were scrapbooking together. Funny how these things happen. Then again, everyone thinks that I'm crazy too now…

"What about we use the green paper?" Otto said.

I squinted at the spread of paper and photographs in front of me. "Yeah! I think that might work nicely."

Otto reached for his glue and started spreading in carefully on the background paper. I did my best to help him without getting in the way. I didn't want to get him angry. Making Otto angry was dangerous.

"Vanessa!"

It was my father. Which was odd. My father, as a general principal, doesn't like me. We've decided to just avoid each other as a general principal, because I think my mom would be pretty mad if one of us killed the other. And when my mom gets mad, people tend to end up dead.

"What?" I asked him.

"Lucy's asking for you." he said.

Lucy? What did Lucy want with me?

"She said it was about your daughter."

I started running.


	3. In Which Max Meets Anastasia

**I always forget if Niko's name is with a 'k' or a 'c'… I'm apologizing in advance for future mistakes. **

**And now, here's some information that I probably should have put in the first chapter but didn't for whatever reason. This story is basically two stories- Raven and Vanessa's in the future and Nero's in the past. Which means… flashbacks! It also means explaining a lot of stuff that showed up early on in this series that **_**originally**_** made sense with what I was doing, but then I changed things and now they don't really make any since… like Bastille and Shaesta… so now hopefully they'll make more sense.**

**Anyway.**

**January 18, 2033**

Madelynn had long since stopped trying to remember, but sometimes, it came to her when she couldn't help it. Like now.

She remembered a baby, dark haired. She was young then, very young. Too young to have a baby. She remembered holding it and feeling so, so alone.

And she remembered the day the man took her baby away. She was washing it in the bathtub, soaked herself, when he came. She- she was pretty sure it had been a she- still had bubbles in her hair when the man stole her from Madelynn.

She hadn't been Madelynn then, though. Her names had all blurred together, decade after decade, until she barely remembered who she had been in the beginning. Or the middle.

There would never be an end.

###

**Raven**

I was in my room when the ground started shaking. I ducked under the desk, pulling my legs up to my chest. An earthquake? Shrieking alarms punctured the silence, then abruptly went off. The electronic hum of H.I.V.E. that I hardly noticed after all these years vanished abruptly, as the lights flickered out.

What the heck was going on?

I heard a thud. I poked my head out from under the table. A woman was lying on the ground, blood streaming from wounds all over her body. I ran forward even though everything was still shaking. I grabbed the woman's arm and exposed her face.

I stared. She had _my_ face.

"Please…" she gasped.

Instantly my thoughts skipped to Vanessa Winters and I snatched the gun from my pocket and shot her in the head.

She fell onto the floor.

Before I could think about it, the wall behind me collapsed. I screamed and hurried to cover my head as plaster rained down onto me.

Oh, god. Valerie. Niko. Tasha. I started crawling towards the door, then stopped when I remembered the woman. I turned to her, but she was gone.

Okay. So I was hallucinating. That was okay. I hallucinate a lot.

"Valerie! Nikolas! Natasha!" I screamed.

"Tally!"

My heart froze. There was only one person in the world who called me Tally…

###

**January 18, 1977**

Bartholomew sighed as he watched his sister scarf down the cake her siblings had stolen. "I am never having children."

"I'm sure your children would be perfect little angels." Scarlett said coldly. "A bunch of cold, insensitive arrogant little-"

"Oh, shut up." Bartholomew growled.

"Children?"

Max looked up from his cake to see the most beautiful person he had ever seen. She was wearing what looked sort of like a white sundress- the kind Emma wore in the summertime- only mostly see-though. She had long dark hair tied into a messy bun, pale skin and clear blue eyes. Max stared at her, something warm sparking to life in his chest.

She saw him looking and smiling at him. It was the equivalent of being punched by Scarlett. Max continued staring at the girl until Scarlett actually _did_ punch him.

"Are you Bartholomew's girlfriend?" Max asked rather stupidly.

"Yes." She slid herself onto the counter and leaned forward towards Max. "And who are you?"

"I'm his brother." Max told her. "I'm eleven."

"He's ten." Scarlett said coldly. She was drinking something out of a little silver flask that she kept hidden in her room and had told Max never to tell their mother about.

"Hm." Anastasia swiped some frosting off of Max's cake, licking her finger slowly. "Interesting." She smiled at Max. "I _love_ ten year old boys. They're so funny…"

"Leave my brother alone." Scarlett growled.

"You leave me alone, you-"

Bartholomew rubbed his head. _"Please_ don't tell me you're both fighting over my little brother…"


End file.
